Hawzah News Agency- Even as hopes rise of an end to the war, international anger over Israel’s actions in Gaza, which have been deemed a genocide by a UN commission of inquiry, remains raw, as evidenced by last weekend’s huge rallies in Spain and Italy.
While the fury that fuels them has been shared and ubiquitous, the demonstrations – and the authorities’ responses to them – have varied considerably from country to country.
In the US, growing pro-Palestinian activism has been met with arrests, legal action and mounting threats, offering a pretext for the Trump administration’s unprecedented attack on free speech and catalysing what many view as the country’s descent into authoritarianism.
In the early months of the war, thousands of people, many of them Jewish, took part in protests. After students at Columbia University set up a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus in the spring of 2024, dozens more followed at other universities across the country.
Meanwhile, allegations of antisemitism against pro-Palestinian protests have been weaponised by the Trump administration to launch an unprecedented assault on academic freedom, including cutting billions in funding to universities, screening thousands of visa applicants for pro-Palestinian views, and the detention and attempted deportation of foreign scholars over their political views.
In the UK, the Metropolitan police have so far arrested more than 1,900 people at pro-Palestinian events.
Even as public opinion has turned against the Israeli government’s relentless assault on Gaza – a recent pro-Palestinian rally in Berlin attracted about 100,000 demonstrators – successive German governments have reaffirmed the principle that responsibility for Israel’s security is part of Berlin’s own Staatsräson, or reason of state.
Activists have repeatedly said that police tactics have been excessive, at times brutal, and in violation of constitutional protections of freedom of assembly and expression.
In Italy, the extent of public opinion against Israel’s war became evident on 22 September, when tens of thousands of people took to the streets calling for an end to the conflict as part of a general strike coordinated by trade unions.
In Ireland, which joined Spain and Norway in formally recognising a Palestinian state in May 2024.
Spain has proved something of an exception when it comes to government support for protests.
Source: The Guardian
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